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Logic for Programmers is Done

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/logic-for-programmers-is-done/

Published: July 29, 2026 15:43

It's done. Logic for Programmers is now 1.0 and available in print. Full announcement here, official website here, direct Amazon link here. If you got an early version of the ebook, you can go back to leanpub to download the 1.0 for free. This marks the…

I'm still alive

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/im-still-alive/

Published: July 14, 2026 16:15

Logic for Programmers v0.15, Livecoding

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/logic-for-programmers-v015-livecoding/

Published: June 17, 2026 16:40

There's a new release of Logic for Programmers! This one, version 0.15, is the first true release candidate. There's a couple of minor touch-ups I need to do but all content is in and copy edited and proofread. Unless something absolutely major comes up,…

Nontrailing separators do not spark joy

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/nontrailing-separators-do-not-spark-joy/

Published: June 10, 2026 12:22

This is valid JSON: { "a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3 } This is invalid JSON: { "a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3, } The difference is the last comma. The JSON grammar specifies that a comma can separate two members of an object but not postcede…

Logic for Programmers extra credits

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/logic-for-programmers-extra-credits/

Published: June 2, 2026 14:48

So I said there wasn’t a proper newsletter this week, since I’m in Budapest prepping for a conference. But I still got a thing for y’all. There’s a lot of interesting topics I wanted to cover for Logic for Programmers, but the book is dense enough as it is…

Knowing about things is cheaper than knowing things

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/knowing-about-things-is-cheaper-than-knowing/

Published: May 28, 2026 16:03

Short one this week because I'm way behind on book and conference prep. Last week a LinkedIn Influencer wrote about how math has nothing to do with programming, so I spite-wrote a rejoinder about how math is necessary to program (just try to write software…

Assumptions weaken properties

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/assumptions-weaken-properties/

Published: May 20, 2026 15:13

In some tests are stronger than others, I defined STRONG => WEAK to mean "any system passing test STRONG is also guaranteed to pass WEAK". This uses the logical implication operator, defined as P => Q = !P || (P && Q). Implication may be the most…

Points are a weird and inconsistent unit of measure

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/points-are-a-weird-and-inconsistent-unit-of/

Published: May 13, 2026 15:56

I'm in the middle of redoing the Logic for Programmers diagrams and this has surfaced a really annoying problem. The book is formatted in LaTeX using a pseudo-grid of 10.8pt × 7.2pt. The diagrams are done in Inkscape using a 10.8pt × 7.2pt. Last week I…

New Logic for Programmers (and the future of this newsletter)

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/new-logic-for-programmers-and-the-future-of-this/

Published: May 6, 2026 17:03

So first the immediate news: I just released version 0.14 of Logic for Programmers! This release is pretty similar to 0.13. There are a few rewrites but the vast majority of the changes are layout, copyediting, and technical editing. Full notes here. In…

Illegal vs Unwanted States

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/illegal-vs-unwanted-states/

Published: April 28, 2026 15:14

An illegal state is a state we never want our system to be in. An unwanted state is a state we don't want to stay in. Many states that we wish were illegal are actually unwanted. Considering a calendaring software which stores calendar events as {user:…